The background: On March 3, Yahoo Sports released a story alleging that the University of Oregon had paid $25,000 to Willie J. Lyles, a man who runs a recruiting service providing college football coaches with contact information and highlight video of elite prospects throughout the nation. Though recruiting services are commonly used in college football, a payment that high seemed unusual. The story also alleged that Lyles had close relationships with Oregon players including LaMichael James and Lache Seastrunk and that he might have steered players to Oregon, which would be an NCAA violation. From the beginning, Oregon coach Chip Kelly has said the Ducks have "nothing to hide," and that all payments to Lyles were made through the UO compliance office and approved beforehand

Who are the major players? Willie J. Lyles: A talent evaluator who used to work for Elite Scouting Services and then started Complete Scouting Services. Was paid $25,000 by the Oregon football program on March 30, 2010, for a 2011 national recruiting package that was supposed to include contact information and video highlights of some of the best football prospects in the country. Baron Flenory: A talent evaluator for New Level Athletics who was paid $3,745 by Oregon on Sept. 11, 2009, for a list of prospects and their contact information. Flenory's recruiting services were only available for a brief period and Oregon was the only school to purchase the contact information. Flenory, who played at New Hampshire when Chip Kelly was an assistant, now operates 7-on-7 football camps. Charles Fishbein: Runs the Florida-based Elite Scouting Services program and says he fired Lyles in Janury 2010 for "nonperformance."

Why is Lyles receiving more scrutiny than Flenory? Besides the payment for Lyles being unusually high, Lyles remains close to Oregon players, claiming he is a mentor to them: In December 2010, Lyles also accompanied James to an awards show in Florida. James has said Lyles is a friend.

What The Oregonian requested: Besides all the invoices that showed any payment from UO to a) Lyles; b) Elite Scouting Services; c) Complete Scouting Services; d) Flenory; e) New Level Athletics, The Oregonian requested text message and cell phone records from from Kelly to Houston area codes since his hire in spring 2007, as well as text message and cell phone records from assistant running backs coach Gary Campbell to Houston area codes; all correspondence with the NCAA related to Lyles involvement with UO; copies of what Lyles actually provided to UO after the purchase of the 2011 National Package; a copy of letter sent certified mail from law firm of Frank - Wienberg - Black to UO on behalf of Fishbein of Elite Scouting Services.

The NCAA's role: Oregon has not received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA, but documents obtained Monday show that the NCAA has been in contact with UO officials and is gathering information.

Michael Buckner, a lawyer in Florida who has represented universities and coaches in cases involving the NCAA, said that in many cases, the NCAA will receive an allegation regarding an institution and "conduct a preliminary investigation to gather as many facts as they possibly can." If the NCAA determines there is evidence to suggest rules were violated, it will send the insitution a letter of inquiry and an in-depth investigation will begin.

The information-gathering process, said Buckner, could take anywhere from a few months to several months. In very rare cases, it can last years.

What is "Lack of institutional control?" In the past 10 years, "lack of institutional control" has become a catch phrase around college athletics. In layman's terms, Buckner said, institutional control means "there's a governing structure in place. The president and chancellor have sufficient control over the athletic department and compliance office to ensure ... there are policies and procedures and processes in place to make sure (the rules) are carried out. Are all those rules communicated to everyone that needs to know them? And then, the last piece is, on a regular basis, is your athletic department getting evaluated by an external source?"

Today, Buckner said, almost all institutions have procedures in place to assure that rules are explained and followed.

"What you're seeing more now is failure to monitor," Buckner said. "If lack of institutional control is the greater penalty, then failure to monitor is right under it. The NCAA wants to know if (schools) are actively monitoring to make sure everyone is in compliance with the rules. That's where a lot of schools fail."